A lógica na formação de sujeitos : um estudo sobre a presença da lógica nos processos de ensino e de aprendizagem de matemática

Abstract

This is a qualitative research, a study case. As a question of research it poses the following problem: How are the different conceptions of logic inserted in the teaching practice of a mathematics teachers’ group in High School? Its main objective is to understand the insertion of the different logic conceptions in the teaching practice of a group of mathematics teachers in High School. In order to achieve this goal, the following specific objectives are considered: (1) Identify the different logic conceptions of a group of mathematics teachers in High School; (2) Understand how these teachers realize the presence of logic in their pedagogical practice; and (3) Identify the different logic conceptions present in pedagogical support materials used by these teachers. In the theoretical background the following themes are approached: Philosophy and Logic; The several conceptions of logic (Aristotle, Russell, Bacon, Decarte); The teaching and learning of logic. Six teachers who hold a degree in mathematics, teachers in the three grades of High School and the analysis of pedagogical support materials was made by the teachers. The data were submitted to the Discursive Textual Analysis. From the analysis the following categories emerged: Conceptions of the teachers about logic, The presence of the Logic in the teaching practice and The several conceptions of logic and the teaching material. In the first category showed that this group of teachers there is certain difficulty of defining what logic is. The group presented three definitions of logic which are: (1) all and any way of thinking; (2) all that can be explained through reason; and (3) sets of arguments that we use to validate or invalidate knowledge. Therefore, to the teachers, logic is the built of a solid argumentation, with coherent thinking, well structured, in order to be able to infer on premises, concepts, problem-situations and the reality, being able to modify them in a conscious way, based on reason, determining its validity and its falsity. In the second category, it became evident that all the teachers, somehow, approach logic in their teaching practices. They affirm that there is little time to teach logic as a topic or content of the subject. What refers to the approach of logic in its pedagogical practices, I evinced that this teachers’ group use logic in their classes when they work with demonstrations, either in Mathematics or Physics subjects, when they work the connectives, with combinatorial and probability analysis, in problem solving, set theory, validation of arguments, true and false, and in all and any situation in which the teachers and students need to argument, solve a problem solving situation and interfere in the world and its reality. And in the third category, we evince that the logical conceptions that appear are the Cartesian ones, being this the most present, the conception of Wittgenstein, the Aristotelian conception and the Russell conception. Although these logical conceptions are present in their materials, none of the teachers identified them in an explicit way. This is, they affirm the presence of logic in their materials, but they do not identify which of the conceptions is present in their books, notebooks or booklets.